148 REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS. CHAP. Ill, 



The best and most accurate description of fruits 

 and their several parts, as well as the most scientific 

 distribution into their several species which has yet 

 been made, is that of Gaertner in his very elaborate 

 work De Fructibus et Seminibus Plant arum, which 

 shall consequently be our principal guide on this 

 interesting and intricate subject. 



As the fruit consists of the ripened ovary, it fol- 

 lows that the situation and distribution of the fruit 

 must be the same with that of the flower which has 

 preceded it. If the flower was radical or caulinary, 

 so is the fruit ; if it was lateral, axillary, or termi- 

 nating, so is the fruit ; if it was sessile or peduncu- 

 late, spiked or verticillate, so also is the fruit. And for 

 the same reason if the ovary was adherent the fruit 

 must be adherent ; and if the ovary was detached 

 the fruit must also be detached. Or, to express these 

 modifications in language perhaps more correct, if 

 the flower was inferior the fruit will be inferior ; if 

 the flower was superior the fruit will be superior ; 

 and if the flower was intermediate the fruit will be in- 

 termediate. It does not follow, however, that mere 

 modifications of position shall be the same ; because 

 it frequently happens that of plants of which the 

 flower has been drooping the fruit is erect, as in the 

 Lily and Cowslip ; and on the contrary, that of 

 plants of which the flower has been erect the fruit 

 is drooping, as in Wheat and Barley. 



Figure. The figure of the fruit assumes almost as much 

 variety as that of the flower ; but the following are 



